In Another Time
by Little Tsu
Summary: Green has been over working and burning himself out like he usually does, but maybe...Just maybe...A certain rival and friend could help him to finally rest. (The OC is basically my own version of Leaf, but I put it as OC as a precaution cause I tweeked her appearance faintly & changed her name & I don' want readers bitin' my head off.)


**In Another Time**

Sighing softly, a young man of about nineteen years fell backwards into a sitting position upon a bench as he hung his head back against the top of it. His eyes gently closed for a moment as he lifted a brown jacket sleeved arm to rest over his eyes in a moment of rest fashion; his spiky mess of chocolate brown hair shifting faintly with the slight breeze that blew. The man seemed to remain in this position for at least a few moments as he allowed the autumn air to slowly relax him from his stressful day while a male Umbreon layed there curled up at his feet.

He couldn't help but to find it...peaceful...

"Greeen..."

"Green-saaaan..."

"Green-baka!"

Jolting suddenly out of his rest, the young man, now known as Green, jerked slightly in his position in startlement as he lifted his head quickly from its leaned back position. Emerald green eyes filling with faint panic at being yanked out of his rest without warning, the sharp gaze locked themselves upon the one who now stood before him. With their hands resting loosely behind their back, their silver white hair shined in the sun's light despite the blue cycling cap that rested upon the top of their head that shadowed their playful ruby gaze that was filled with a laughter that the owner of those eyes struggled to restrain. Calming back down, Green sighed softly in exasperation before giving the girl a slightly tired look. "Tsubaki, what the hell? You trying ta give me a heart attack? I swear, you're worse than Red sometimes..."

Giggling softly, the sixteen-year-old girl, Tsubaki, closed her eyes gently in her laughter before opening them back up as she grinned cheekily. "What can I say? You were just so cute and innocent napping there Green-san. I couldn't resist startling you." The smile then softened quite a bit as did the expression in her eyes as she studied him slightly. "Green-san...Have you been getting enough sleep?...You look really exhausted..."

The male of the two trainers remained quiet for a moment as he just stared at his rival and the one pokemon she usually kept out with her; her male Beedrill, Vaith. He always did find it strange that she loved that pokemon so much; treating him special even though she loved all of her pokemon a great deal. Finally, he sighed softly and pushed himself up onto his feet, stirring his Umbreon from his nap in the process, before shoving his hands into his jacket pockets as he walked off. His eyes were gently closed and his head tilted down slightly as he did so. "That's none of your business Tsubaki. Besides,...what do you care?"

"I care...More than you know apparently..."

"Yeah well,...don't...It's much easier that way."

When he didn't get a reply after his last comment, he glanced behind himself from over his shoulder a few moments later to see what was wrong, but Tsubaki and Vaith were already gone. Staring at the spot where they had been before they left for a moment longer in silence, Green finally turned back around and headed off. "Come on Umbreon. We still have a busy day ahead of ourselves." With a nod from his loyal eeveelution, the two walked off down the street to get a few errands over with before the gym battle that another trainer had reservations for came up later that afternoon.

Watching as the defeated trainer ran out onto the field and kneeling at her Sandslash's side as she helped him to sit up, he lifted his hand that held a pokeball within it as he returned his Blastoise. That was yet another victory for him and another defeated trainer in their attempt to beat him for the Earth Badge. Hooking the pokeball back into place on his belt, he shoved a hand into his jacket pocket as he returned to watching the girl interact with her Sandslash, giving him praise for battling so hard. It was obvious that out of her entire team, that ground type had been her strongest, but also possibly the one that had been with her the longest too.

"She kinda reminds you of someone, huh?"

Snapping out of his daze, Green side glanced over at Tsubaki while she stood there with a smile on her face. He hadn't even realized when she had shown up; he had been so focused on his opponent during their battle. As the girl finally rose up onto her feet with her Sandslash, she gave him a bright smile and waved in thanks for the match before leaving the gym with her pokemon. He wouldn't admit it, but she **had** reminded him of someone. Nodding slightly in a silent 'no problem' to the trainer, he finally sighed softly and lifted a hand as he ran his fingers tiredly through the spikes of his chocolate brown hair.

"Maybe you should take a little vacation soon. If you keep this up without any proper rest, you're bound to collapse from exhaustion."

"Yeah? And whose fault is that, I wonder?" Shooting a sudden angry look towards Tsubaki, he refused to allow the sudden sympathetic and hurt look on her features get to him. "It's your fault I'm like this in the first place Tsubaki! You're the reason I can't hardly sleep anymore!" Clenching his teeth together at this, he finally turned around and stalked off to leave the gym. When he made it to the front door and opened it to leave, he turned around to glance behind himself, but found that his rival had already slipped out. Standing there for a moment as he stared out across his empty gym, Green finally sighed once more and stepped outside; the doors closing quietly behind him.

Touching down on the ground, Green slipped off of his Pidgeot's back as he thanked his flier and returned him back into his pokeball. Glancing around himself at the scenery, the nineteen-year-old began to make his way across the beach and up a hill. He hadn't been to this region in quite a while. He had had no real reason to. As he made it to the top of the hill that had a drop off into a bit of a cliff at the end of it, he spied a silver white haired girl sitting on the edge with her feet kicking lightly in a leasurely manner over said edge. When she finally glanced behind herself, she casted him a grin as he slowly made his way over to her.

"Hey there Green-san. About time you showed up. I knew you'd come here so I decided to beat you to it, hehe." Tsubaki then glanced up at Green as he stood there next to where she was seated in the grass and flashed him another smile. "Of course, it also helps that I know you so well. You know,...what with being rivals and best friends since childhood and all that."

"...Do you?...Do you really know me? I mean, seriously."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Tilting his head down, Green locked his emerald eyes with the girl's confused ruby ones. "You really are dense. You haven't changed a bit Tsubaki..." Scowling slightly at this, he turned back to facing the front as he took in the view of this part of the Almia Region. "...You really are worse than Red...You had no clue at all towards how I felt about any of this after our journies through Kanto finally ended. You just went off and did whatever you wanted, just like you've always done."

"...You think I had wanted this?"

"Well, you certainly didn't stay! You didn't stick around Kanto and stayed with all of us! Instead, you came here to Almia to become a pokemon ranger, leaving all of your pokemon at your parents' house besides your Pidgeot and Beedrill! Do you have any idea how much **any** of us have missed you?!" Glaring down at her as Green turned towards her fully, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "All of this is **your** fault Tsubaki!" Panting raggedly from his anger getting the better of him, he finally slowly began to calm back down as his eyes softened in defeat while Tsubaki held a sad, apologetic look in her own gaze. Finally unable to keep eye contact with her anymore, he turned his head and stared at the grassy ground. "...Why'd you have to leave...?"

"...Cause I wanted to better myself...I wanted to be more than just your rival. I wanted...to become someone people could depend on;...someone **you** could depend on..."

"...Stupid...You're so **stupid** Tsubaki..."

When he said this, he finally turned his gaze back to face Tsubaki, but she was no longer there. Instead,...a slab of marble stood in her spot, dedicatedly watching over Almia. "...I had **always** depended on you..."

 _~"Since our journey here is finally over, I've decided I'm moving to the Almia Region. I'm gonna work hard with Vaith as my partner pokemon to become a Top Ranger."_

 _"What?! Are you insane?! What about your family or all your pokemon?! You might not even **become** a Top Ranger!"_

 _"My family will miss me, but dad approved of my leaving and promised to watch over my team. Vaith and my Pidgeot, Cedre are coming with me though so I'll be fine. I trust my Beedrill as my partner pokemon. We'll make it to our goal, I just know it."_

 _"Well, **fine** then! Just throw everything away here and get in over your head! See if I care! I won't be there to help get you out of it if you're in trouble!"~_

 _~"Hello, is this Green Oak?"_

 _"Yeah, this is he. Who's speaking?"_

 _"My apologies. This is Chairperson Erma from the Ranger Union over in the Almia Region. Tsubaki...Well, she had you and her father listed as her emergency contacts. I...regret to inform you that,...at 8:23 this morning, both Tsubaki and her partner pokemon, Vaith were lost during a highly important mission to rescue a fellow Top Ranger by sacrifising their own lives...I'm terribly sorry for your loss...She was truly a brave soul..."~_

"...I hadn't meant it...I didn't mean for you to get in over your head in such a way..."

Kneeling down at the marble slab, Green read the inscription upon it with tears in his eyes as he traced them all slowly with his fingers. He then set down some flowers that were native only in Kanto along with a picture within a wooden frame; the picture being one of three young trainers just starting out on their journey. Two boys, the one on the left with slightly messy black hair, red eyes, and a red cap was wearing a bright smile on his features as a Bulbasaur stood at his feet, the one on the right with spiky chocolate brown hair, emerald green eyes, and a cocky smirk on his features had his arms crossed over his chest and his side partially facing the camera; a Squirtle hanging off of his shoulder and back with that same cocky, narrow eyed smirk. Finally,...in the center, between the two boys,...was a young twelve-year-old girl of the same age as the boys with a blue cycling cap, midback length silver white hair with the sides of her hair flipped up slightly in a cat ear fashion under the hat, ruby red eyes set in a wink, and a bright, cheeky grin on her features as she had one arm thrusted out in front of her in a peace fashion while her other arm held an equally bright grinning Charmander that also did a peace sign of his own. In the top right of the pic at an angle, the words **'Best Friends Forever'** were written in loopy font with each letter patterned with the colors red, green, and blue.

Slowly rising up onto his feet, Green turned around and walked a ways away from the grave as he released his Pidgeot. As he did though, and was about to climb on to fly off, a giggle sounded off behind him once more causing the young man to freeze and glance behind himself at the grave.

Sitting there on top of the grave now rather than on the ground in place of the slab, was his best friend and rival tilting her head slightly to the side and smiling brightly while Vaith stood at her side with his needle arms crossed in front of himself stubbornly. The only difference this time though, was that when he saw them, they had a mystic glow surrounding them. "Thank you for finally visiting me Green-san...You have no idea how much it meant to me..." With that, both Tsubaki and Vaith faded away.

Smiling in a faintly sad manner, Green nodded his head before turning back around as he closed his eyes gently and tilted his head down a bit. "Actually,...I think I have a pretty good idea..." With that, he hopped up onto his flier's back and took to the skies to head back home to Kanto; finally believing that for the first time in three years, he would beable to get a good full rest...

Back at the hill that over looking part of Almia, the tombstone watched over the beautiful region. The words that were carved upon it forever etched into the memories of any who read it and knew of who they were...

 **Tsubaki and Vaith**

 **Top Ranger and Partner Pokemon**

 **Heroes of Almia**

 **The bravest of us all**

Maybe somewhere...

In another time...In another place...

All three friends are together and smiling...

 **End.**

 _Little Tsu: Jus' somethin' I thought up. Nothin' big. I kinda wanted ta come up with somethin' towards a reason why Blue/Leaf wasn' in HeartGold & SoulSilver like Red & Green were, but I changed her color a bit & gave her a different name. Personally, I always thought 'Tsubaki' was a suitin' name for her given her appearance & all. She jus' looked like a Tsubaki ta me. And I only changed her hair & eye color cause...well, lets face it. In the games, brown hair and blue eyes are used way too often. lol_


End file.
